Assad warns of retaliation for US strike on Syria

Updated 2:10 pm, Monday, September 9, 2013

In this frame grab from video taken Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013, and provided by "CBS This Morning," Syrian President Bashar Assad responds to a question from journalist Charlie Rose during an interview in Damascus, Syria. Assad warned in the interview broadcast Monday on CBS there will be retaliation against the U.S. for any military strike launched in response to the alleged chemical weapons attack. Assad said, "You should expect everything."
Photo: CBS This Morning

In this frame grab from video taken Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013, and...

On March 15, 2011, a Syrian civil war began between Ba'ath Party
loyalists and forces seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad. The
Syrian civil war has killed an estimated 70,000 people and displaced
more than four million. The country, with a prewar population of 22
million, is now carved up into areas controlled by the regime and others
held by rebels. The Syrian civil war began during the Arab Spring
uprisings, which occurred across the Middle East and began in December
of 2010.

Photo: Narciso Contreras, ASSOCIATED PRESS

On March 15, 2011, a Syrian civil war began between Ba'ath Party...

A Free Syrian Army fighter feeds a cat bread in the old city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. The revolution against Syrian President Bashar Assad that began in March 2011, started with peaceful protests but morphed into a civil war that has killed more than 60,000 people, according to a recent United Nations recent estimate.
Photo: Andoni Lubaki, AP

A Free Syrian Army fighter feeds a cat bread in the old city of...

In this Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 photo, a Free Syrian Army fighter takes cover during heavy clashes with government forces at a military academy besieged by the rebels north of Aleppo, Syria. Free Syrian Army fighters took control over the military academy after battling government forces for several hours.
Photo: Narciso Contreras, ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Syrian man cries while holding the body of his son, killed by the Syrian Army, near Dar El Shifa hospital in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012. Regime forces unleashed shelling on rebel-held areas and fired machine guns from aircraft, according to an Associated Press journalist in Aleppo, following three suicide car bombs earlier in the day in a government-controlled area of the city.
Photo: Manu Brabo, AP

A Syrian man cries while holding the body of his son, killed by the...

Rada Hallabi, 4, who is sick with diabetes, lies on a blanket in a refugee camp on the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012.
Photo: Manu Brabo, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rada Hallabi, 4, who is sick with diabetes, lies on a blanket in a...

Syrian rebel fighter, Wisam Al-Saleh, 21, poses for a picture, after returning back from fighting against Syrian army forces in Aleppo, at a rebel headquarters in Marea on the outskirts of Aleppo city, Syria, Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012. In their previous lives, they were butchers, barbers, construction workers and university students. Now they are rebels fighting a civil war they hope will end the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Photo: Muhammed Muheisen, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Syrian rebel fighter, Wisam Al-Saleh, 21, poses for a picture,...

Injured Syrian women arrive at a field hospital after an air strike hit their homes in the town of Azaz on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012.
Photo: Khalil Hamra, AP

Injured Syrian women arrive at a field hospital after an air strike...

In this Wednesday, Aug. 15, 3023 photo, a Syrian refugee mother feeds her child at the Syrian side of Bab Al-Salam crossing border as they wait to cross to one of the refugee camps in Turkey, in the town of Azaz on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. Thousands of Syrians who have been displaced by the country's civil are struggling to find safe shelter while shelling and airstrikes by government forces continue.
Photo: Khalil Hamra, ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Wednesday, Aug. 15, 3023 photo, a Syrian refugee mother...

A Free Syrian Army soldier holds a weapon as he takes part in a training session on the outskirts of Idlib, Syria, Thursday, June 7, 2012.
Photo: Anonymous, AP

A Free Syrian Army soldier holds a weapon as he takes part in a...

A Syrian girl wears revolutionary Syrian flag colors on her face during a protest in solidarity with victims of the Houla massacre in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, May 31, 2012. Syria on Thursday blamed up to 800 rebel fighters for the massacre in central Syria last week that killed more than 100 people, nearly half of them children, in its most comprehensive explanation to date of the bloodshed.
Photo: Mohammad Hannon, ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Syrian girl wears revolutionary Syrian flag colors on her face...

A Free Syrian Army fighter, right, stands near the body of a fallen comrade in a neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, after a raid by Syrian troops killed several rebels and civilians Thursday, April 5, 2012. Syrian troops launched a fierce assault Thursday, days ahead of a deadline for a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, with activists describing it as one of the most violent attacks around the capital since the year-old uprising began.
Photo: Anonymous, ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Free Syrian Army fighter, right, stands near the body of a fallen...

A woman weeps as she prays during an anti-government demonstration in Idlib, north Syria, Friday, March 9, 2012.
Photo: Rodrigo Abd, ASSOCIATED PRESS

A woman weeps as she prays during an anti-government demonstration...

Ahmed, center, mourns his father Abdulaziz Abu Ahmed Khrer, who was killed by a Syrian Army sniper, during his funeral in Idlib, north Syria, Thursday, March 8, 2012.
Photo: Rodrigo Abd, ASSOCIATED PRESS

6-months old Maher, laughs as the child is placed to pose with a machine gun placed by supporters of the Free Syrian Army, inside a house near Idlib, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 23., 2012.
Photo: Rodrigo Abd, ASSOCIATED PRESS

6-months old Maher, laughs as the child is placed to pose with a...

A Free Syrian Army fighter displays a damaged ordinance in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. Two explosions struck the main university in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday, causing an unknown number of casualties, state media and anti-government activists said.
Photo: Andoni Lubaki, ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Free Syrian Army fighter displays a damaged ordinance in Aleppo,...

In this Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012 photo, smoke rises from buildings due to government forces shelling seen through broken glass in Aleppo, Syria.
Photo: Manu Brabo, ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012 photo, smoke rises from buildings...

Syrians, who fled their homes due to fighting between the Syrian army and the rebels, shout slogans as they march toward the Turkish side of the border, during a protest asking the Turkish government to let them enter to their refugee camps, at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing, near the Syrian town of Azaz, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012
Photo: Muhammed Muheisen, AP

Syrians, who fled their homes due to fighting between the Syrian...

This Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 photo, shows a damaged portrait of former Syrian President Hafez Assad at the entrance of a military academy besieged by rebels during heavy clashes with government forces north of Aleppo, Syria.
Photo: Narciso Contreras, ASSOCIATED PRESS

This Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 photo, shows a damaged portrait of...

Syrian children play in the street in the Bustan Al Qsar district in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012.
Photo: Manu Brabo, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Syrian children play in the street in the Bustan Al Qsar district...

Relatives and mourners of Abdullah Alrayzar, 23, left, and Mohammed Abdul Samee, 35, pray during a funeral for four men, who were killed in a government airstrike in Marea, on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012.
Photo: Muhammed Muheisen, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Relatives and mourners of Abdullah Alrayzar, 23, left, and Mohammed...

In this Friday, Sept 7, 2012 photo, Free Syrian Army fighters run after attacking a Syrian Army tank during fighting in the Izaa district in Aleppo, Syria. On Friday, U.S. Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham, who have toured the volatile Middle East in recent days, urged Washington to help arm Syria's rebels with weapons and create a safe zone inside the country for a transition government.
Photo: Manu Brabo, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad has warned there will be "repercussions" against any U. S. military strike launched in response to a chemical weapons attack in his country.

"You should expect everything," Assad said in an interview with CBS taped in Damascus. "Not necessarily from the government. It's not only the government ... in this region. You have different parties, you have different factions, you have different ideology."

Asked if he was making a threat of a direct military response to any such attack, Assad was vague, saying at one point, "I am not fortune teller to tell you what's going to happen."

President Barack Obama is seeking authorization from Congress to launch what the administration says would be a limited-scope attack against Syria in reprisal for Assad's purported use of chemical weapons. Assad has denied it and argued in the interview broadcast Monday on "CBS This Morning" that Washington has presented no evidence to substantiate its allegations. In London Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry reasserted Washington's argument and said that the evidence is sufficiently strong to be accepted as evidence in a court of law.

In the CBS interview, Assad said his forces were not in the area of the chemical weapons attack Aug. 21, saying "our soldiers in another area were attacked chemically. ... But in the area where they said the government used chemical weapons, we only had video and we only have pictures and allegations. We're not there." Kerry said that Assad's denial is "contradicted by fact."

Asked if chemical warfare could be one repercussion from an American intervention in Syria, Assad told anchorman Charlie Rose: "That depends if the rebels or the terrorists in this region or any other group have it. It could happen. "

"You are going to pay the price if you are not wise with dealing with terrorists," he said.

Assad also said the current incident brings to mind memories of the arguments for intervention that President George W. Bush's administration made over a decade ago in connection with President Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Assad said Kerry's statements reminded him about "the big lie" that Secretary of State Colin Powell said to the United Nations about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

Assad also said the majority of Americans "don't want a war anywhere, not only against Syria." He said the first question the U.S. lawmakers should ask themselves is , "What do wars give America?" He said Washington's credibility is "at an all-time low."